Watermelon
by Akulaledi
Summary: 'A fine mess you've gotten yourself into, Miyuki Kazuya.' My Kisetsu Zine submission. Misawa


The ship was quiet, save for the occasional hum of the barrier in front of him. He sighed and it sounded louder than it actually was.

'_A fine mess you've gotten yourself into, Miyuki Kazuya._' He thought and leaned his head back against the wall he had his back to. '_Had to try your luck at gambling, didn't you?_'

Miyuki had been, emphasis on _had been,_ a somewhat respected scientist back on his home station before he sniffed out a major conspiracy that got him labeled as a threat, forcing him to flee the only home he ever knew. He stole a small ship and escaped into the blackness of space. He only stopped when he nearly ran out of fuel near a huge grimy space station. Since he only escaped with the clothes on his back and a little money, he decided to chance his luck with a little gambling. His luck was awful. To make matters worse, he shared a table with a green haired bounty hunter who just so happened to be hunting. He almost escaped but this bounty hunter had a partner.

So here he sat in a small holding area, handcuffed, staring at the light blue barrier that kept him in, bored out of his mind. It sure had been a short and exciting week so far. And speaking of exciting, the door to the space beyond his cell opened and the green haired bounty hunter's partner entered the room.

Bright golden eyes looked at him in surprise.

"Oh hey! You're awake!" A large smile adorned the partner's face.

"That I am, have been for awhile now and no breakfast? You guys are terrible hosts." Miyuki's lips twitched up into a small smirk. The golden eyed bounty hunter stalled while walking and his eyes widened.

"Oh yeah. I guess we should feed you."

"You...guess." Miyuki stated flatly and narrowed his eyes at the other man. The golden eyed one shrugged.

"We usually don't have bounties stored on our ship this long, so I didn't even think about it. Sorry."

"Uh...huh." Miyuki responded slowly.

"Um, I have some dried rations you can have. Is that okay?"

"Would you make me something else if I said no?" The edge of Miyuki's mouth tilted up into a full smirk.

"Uh, well I would but we're low on fresh ingredients at the moment." Gold eyes said with a hint of an apology in his words.

"Dried rations it is then. You know, you're awfully kind to your prisoners."

"Am I?" The other man asked as he dug through a box that was on top of a table and then pulled out a white packet labeled simply as 'FRUIT'. He turned and walked to where Miyuki was. Deactivating the barrier that separated them, he held out the package to him.

"Kind or a complete idiot." Miyuki said as he reached out for the package but the bounty hunter pulled it back.

"I don't _have _to feed you, you know." He said with a small glare.

"I'm joking, I'm joking." Miyuki gave him a genuine smile and held out his hands, palms up. The bounty hunter continued glaring for a moment before he sighed and handed over the package of dried fruit. After he did so, he turned around and sat in a chair across from the holding area.

Miyuki opened the bag and pulled out whatever fruit was inside. The one he grabbed was orange and roundish so he guessed it was an apricot. He looked at it for a few seconds before he popped it in his mouth. It was distastefully sweet. He grimaced as he chewed. Golden eyes watched him from the chair with a small smile.

"So...how is it?"

"The fruit?" Miyuki asked once he swallowed and pulled out a shriveled blueberry. The other man nodded. Miyuki shrugged and popped the blueberry in his mouth. "Overly sweet like dried fruit usually is."

"Yeah, that's how it tastes to me too. I miss fresh fruit all the time but you know how being in space is like. Fresh isn't the best for long trips."

Miyuki hummed in response and pulled out a dried strawberry. It was tart when he chewed it. Golden eyes continued on.

"We were only able to get one fruit medley on our last stock up and it really makes me miss home and my family's farm." A nostalgic look washed over Golden eye's face. "It's a Summer mixture and I'll tell you, I've never wanted a Watermelon so much in my life."

Miyuki's eyebrow lifted slightly. "Never had one before, only heard of them. Are they that good?"

Golden eye's head shot up. "You've never had watermelon before? HOW?"

"Station-born, we didn't really get the best things. This is actually my first time off the station."

"That actually sounds a little sad."

Miyuki shrugged. "It was a life."

"Doesn't sound like a very exciting one."

Miyuki ended up glaring at the other man who just smiled at him apologetically in response.

"It may not of been very exciting in your standards but I made the best of it...until recently I guess."

"Yeah, whatever you did must of been bad." Golden eyes agreed.

"Wait, do you not even know why I have a bounty?"

"Not really. Mochi said, _We're hunting this guy today_, and all I saw was how much you were worth. You're worth a ticket back home."

"Ah." Miyuki said softly. "Lucky you. You can have _all_ the watermelon you want once you turn me in."

"I guess so." Golden eye's voice faltered a bit. "To be honest with you, you're not like most bounties. You're rather accepting of this."

"Well maybe I'm trying to lure you into a false sense of security so you'd feel bad for me and let me go."

"Are you?" Golden eyes asked seriously and looked him dead in the eye. They looked at each other for a long moment before Miyuki sighed.

"No. I'm not. It doesn't really matter. I had my fun, I saw another space station and that was neat." He broke eye contact with the other and pulled out another dried apricot and popped it in his mouth.

Golden eyes kept staring at him before he sighed loudly and ruffled his hair with one hand. "So you've never been off of your station and you've never had watermelon before?"

"Yes?" Miyuki's eyebrow lifted in confusion. "Did I just not answer that?"

"So that means you've never done anything like, Summer-y?"

"There aren't seasons on board a space station, everyday is just room temperature."

"Then that means you've never felt the heat of a sun! Or the sting of a sunburn it leaves!" Golden eyes stood up in a hurry and turned to some boxes that were on the floor next to the table he pulled the dried fruit from. He dug around for a moment until he found what he was looking for. "That means you've never played catch!"

Golden eyes held up a dirty white ball in his left hand with a wide smile. Miyuki looked at him for a long moment before he let out an exasperated sigh.

"I was so right about you being an idiot. Of course I've played catch before, I'm not that sheltered! We have recreational things on the station."

"No, no, no let me expand on that." Golden eyes shook his head and hands. "What I mean is, you've never played catch on a field. BASEBALL…YES! You've never experienced baseball!" He pointed at Miyuki with the ball.

"Why would I care about baseball?" Miyuki asked.

"Why wouldn't you?! It's only like the greatest game you can play during the summer!"

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yeah! I used to play back at home when I was younger. It is like the most fun thing, especially if you get a whole group to play and you have two full teams! Eighteen people playing against each other with the summer sun shining down on you. There's no other feeling that quite stands up to it if you ask me." Golden eyes was smiling widely and his eyes were sparkling.

Miyuki was a little taken aback by the force of the passion radiating from the other man. If he felt this strongly about baseball, then it couldn't be a bad thing, could it? He frowned after a moment.

"Okay...so even though you like baseball so much, it doesn't change the fact that I won't get to experience these things. So you trying to convince me about anything is clearly a mute point. Once you take me back, they're going to kill me." Miyuki said curtly and frowned deeper at the other man.

Golden eye's smile faltered a bit but it didn't go away.

"That's where you're wrong. You won't be dying anytime soon."

"What are you even talking about!? Of course they're going to kill me, I know too much about their little station experiments."

"Yeah, yeah but you're mistaken about one thing." Golden eyes brought his hand with the ball close to him and started tossing the sphere up in the air and catching it. "I'm not taking you back to that station."

Miyuki's mouth dropped open and he mimicked a fish trying to get words out. "...What?"

"I'm not taking you back."

"Why?"

Golden eyes tossed the ball back up one more time before he caught it in his hand and dropped both to his side. "I don't really believe the reason for your bounty and that you should be put to death. You just seem like a regular guy who accidentally jumped into the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim. And from our little conversation, I don't think it's fair that you haven't experienced things off of a space station. Luckily for you, you've been picked up by me."

Miyuki stared at him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sawamura Eijun!" Eijun lifted his right hand, that held the ball and jabbed his thumb into his chest. "Captain of this ship and recruiter of potential bounty hunters. You seem like the kinda guy I'd work well with. How about it, you wanna join the team?"

Miyuki was quiet for a long time before he burst out laughing. "T-this is hardly believable."

"Well I am pretty unbelievable but believe it Miyuki Kazuya. I'm telling you the truth." Eijun met Miyuki's eyes with his fierce gold ones. For the first time in his life, Miyuki felt like he could feel the heat of a summer sun from that gaze. His laughing stopped.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

"You always have a choice."

"Well, your option is clearly the better choice. So I guess...count me in."

Eijun broke out into a large grin and held out his left hand. "Fantastic! I'm so happy."

Miyuki took the offered hand and shook it with his right, the handcuffs jingled with the movement.

"How is your catching? I could really use a catcher for my team when we go back to Earth."

"Uh...okay I guess. Wait...a catcher?" Miyuki asked confused.

"For Baseball of course." Eijun said as he unlocked Miyuki's handcuffs with a key he pulled out of his pants pocket. "Not only am I recruiting for bounty hunting, I'm also recruiting for baseball."

Miyuki's face broke into a grin. "I knew you were an idiot."

Eijun just smiled. "Yeah, but this idiot will treat you to a huge watermelon for joining."

Miyuki could honestly not wait for a taste of that sweet summer melon.

X_X_X_X

I wrote this for the Kisetsu Zine. My season was Summer.

I've mulled it around in my head about rewriting and expanding this idea but it's just a thought right now.


End file.
